1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to communication links including, but not limited to, serial interfaces for integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Background Art
Transceivers are used to form high speed serial interface (HSSI) links between integrated circuits (ICs). The transceivers typically use differential voltage signals to transmit and receive data. One aspect of the differential voltage signaling that limits performance is differential skew.
Differential skew introduces inter-symbol interference and results in attenuation of the differential signal. Differential skew occurs when the positive and negative paths to deliver their signals at different moments at the end of a differential channel. Differential skew may be caused by non-ideal effects in actual circuits, such as unequal conductor lengths and unmatched twists.